Baseball Card Lookalike Business Expands Greatly In Just A Few Years

Three years ago, photographer John C. Pittman sold about 8,400 of his Sports Stars, which are trading cards carrying the pictures of youths playing organized sports.

This year, with the help of 17 distributors in 13 states, he expects to handle at least 2.5 million cards.

Pittman's original product, which he touts as an alternative to more traditional types of photographs, resemble baseball cards that are sold along with bubble gum. On the card's back is listed the youth's playing position, team name, age, weight and height - just like professional athletes.

What started three years ago as a method to photograph Little League players grew to include all community and school sports, such as midget football, basketball and soccer.

Last year about 10,000 children in the Lehigh Valley had their faces on one of Pittman's cards, which are made of Kodak photographic paper.

But the real growth for Pittman's family business (he's helped by his wife Donna in a darkroom and production area set up in their Moore Township home) is coming with the introduction of various versions of the Sports Stars card.

Picture Perfect is Pittman's trade name for the photographic cards he sells to school bands, theater clubs and other nonsports activity groups. Instead of a batting average, the back of the card may identify the musical instrument the child plays.

Friendship trading cards is aimed at the younger crowd - children in preschool, day care and early elementary school. The back of the wallet-sized cards might show the child's favorite food or animal, along with his or her birth date and other personal information.

"I feel this product will make inroads in the school picture market," said the 35-year-old Pittman. "Instead of sitting on the television or mantle" the photo cards are swaped among friends.

Pittman joked that he has a large demand for reprints because many times the children have given away all their photographs by the time they come home from school. "They come home with one card for Mom, and have a dozen of their friends' cards," he said.

And another new product is a business card made entirely from a photograph.

Using a custom-made printer, Pittman can mask lettering on the card's front at the same time he exposes for the photograph.

The cards don't have to carry a person's portrait. "I have a fellow in the trash business who wanted a photograph of his garbage trucks lined up," said Pittman.

Larry Holmes, pictured behind his desk with a phone to his ear, was one of Pittman's first business card customers.

The data that appears on the rear of the cards is typed into programs on Pittman's personal computer and printed out on adhesive-backed paper.

Pittman employs four part-time photographers who travel the areato make photographs pf the various teams and schoolchildren. In the busy months, he hires employees to help assemble the cards into packets for delivery.